IMPLEMENTING STANDARDIZED BEHAVIORS IN A HOSTING DEVICE

• US 20150205268A1
• Filed: 01/23/2014
• Published: 07/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Infrastructure Technology, LLC (General Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Downor, Johnny
• Granted Patent: US 9,311,810 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0425 Safety, monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24123 Alarm filtering, level and direct precursor, required action, blocking condition
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0272 Presentation of monitored results, e.g. selection of status reports to be displayed; Filtering information to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/18 Status alarms G08B21/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/001 Alarm cancelling procedures or alarm forwarding decisions, e.g. based on absence of alarm confirmation
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/008 Alarm setting and unsetting, i.e. arming or disarming of the security system
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 5/22 using electric transmission; using electromagnetic transmission

Abstract

A system includes a standard functionality hosting device. The hosting device includes standard functionality hosting logic that includes machine-readable instructions stored on a tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium configured to implement, control, or implement and control management functionalities defined by a standard, for one or more devices that are not independently enabled to implement, control, or implement and control the management functionalities. Further, the hosting device includes a processor configured to implement the alarm standard hosting logic.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a standard functionality hosting device, comprising;

standard functionality hosting logic comprising machine-readable instructions stored on a tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium configured to implement, control, or implement and control management functionalities comprising alarm prioritization, alarm shelving, alarm out of service functionality, or any combination thereof defined by a standard, for one or more devices that are not independently enabled to implement, control, or implement and control the management functionalities; and

a processor configured to implement the alarm standard hosting logic.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the management functionalities comprise alarm management functionalities.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the management functionalities comprise functionalities defined by the International Society of Automation (ISA) in the ISA 18.2 standard.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the management functionalities comprise an alarm shelving function configured to disable or otherwise differentiate presentation of an alarm for a temporary time period.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the management functionalities comprise an alarm prioritization function configured to present a representation of a priority of an alarm relative to other alarms.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the management functionalities comprise a functionality to take an active alarm out of service, a functionality to place an out of service alarm back in service, or both.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the management functionalities comprise a suppression by design functionality configured to either suppress an alarm or activate the alarm upon an occurrence of a set of defined conditions.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the standard functionality hosting logic is configured to:

receive commands associated with the management functionalities and one or more particular alarms of the one or more devices;

associate data conditions with the one or more particular alarms, based upon the received commands; and

implement the management functionalities for the one or more particular alarms, based upon the associated data conditions.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the standard functionality hosting logic is configured to:

monitor the one or more devices for alarms;

receive an alarm from the one or more devices;

determine whether the alarm has been set as out of service or shelved by the standard functionality hosting logic;

disable or otherwise differentiate presentation of the alarm if the alarm is set as out of service;

disable or otherwise differentiate presentation of the alarm if the alarm is set as shelved and a shelving time period has not elapsed; and

present the alarm normally if the alarm is not set as out of service, shelved, or if the shelving time period has elapsed.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the standard functionality hosting device comprises a standalone device solely configured to host standard functionalities.

11. The system of claim 1, comprising an industrial system controller, wherein the industrial system controller comprises the standard functionality hosting device.

12. An industrial control system, comprising:

a device configured to provide one or more alarms upon the occurrence of one or more events;

a controller configured to receive the one or more alarms and provide the one or more alarms to an alarm server;

the alarm server configured to receive and process the one or more alarms;

an alarm viewer configured to display the one or more alarms that are provided by the alarm server; and

a standard functionality hosting device configured to implement, control, or implement and control management functionalities comprising alarm prioritization, alarm shelving, alarm out of service functionality, or any combination thereof defined by a standard implemented in the industrial control system, wherein the device is not independently enabled to implement, control, or implement and control the management functionalities.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the controller comprises the standard functionality hosting device.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the standard functionality hosting device is configured to receive and process a command generated in response to inputs from a graphical user interface, wherein the command is associated with the management functionalities and one or more particular alarms of the one or more devices.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the graphical user interface is generated at the alarm viewer.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the standard functionality hosting device is configured to provide the one or more alarms to the alarm server for presentation by the alarm viewer in accordance with the management functionalities.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the device comprises a Foundation Fieldbus device, wherein the standard comprises the International Society of Automation (ISA) 18.2 alarm management standard, and the management functionalities comprise:

alarm prioritization, alarm shelving, alarm out of service functionality, or any combination thereof.

18. A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium, comprising machine-readable instructions to:

interpret one or more commands defining an application of one or more functionalities of International Society of Automation'"'"'s (ISA'"'"'s) 18.2 alarm management standard applied to one or more devices that are not independently enabled to implement the functionalities; and

implement the one or more functionalities by modifying how, when, or how and when one or more alarms of the one or more devices are presented, based upon the one or more commands.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, comprising machine-readable instructions to:

interpret an out of service command for a first alarm;

apply an out of service data condition to a representation of the first alarm in a data store;

detect reception of the first alarm from the one or more devices; and

disable presentation of the first alarm by an alarm viewer, based upon the applied out of service data condition.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 18, comprising machine-readable instructions to:

interpret a shelving command for a first alarm;

apply a shelving data condition to a representation of the first alarm in a data store, wherein the shelving condition comprises an indication of a shelving period;

detect reception of the first alarm from the one or more devices; and

disable presentation of the first alarm by an alarm viewer during the shelving period, based upon the applied shelving data condition.